SHAF has been preserving and protecting historic sites related to the Battle of Antietam, the Maryland Campaign, and other Civil War activity in the region since 1986. We need your help to keep it going.

This tour consists of 12 stops that lead a visitor from Monocacy National Battlefield, site of finding of Lee’s Lost Order, through the battles of South Mountain, Harpers Ferry, Antietam and Shepherdstown. Along the way, some of the most scenic and historic views and towns in Western Maryland and West Virginia make this driving tour a pleasant experience.

The driving tour has been produced to allow the casual visitor, as well the seasoned campaigner, to investigate a series of sites, many of which are off the beaten path, which supplement the story told at the National Parks at Harpers Ferry, Antietam and the C&O Canal. Maryland’s South Mountain Battlefield is covered in this tour, but other sites, such as Shepherdstown Ford, Boonsboro and Middletown are included.

Linking these sites, and listing other possible side trips, gives the first comprehensive look at the titanic struggle of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on its first and most influential invasion north of the Potomac River. The route of Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac is traced as it pursues Lee, and brings his army to battle in several actions during September of 1862.

The map will be available at the National and State Parks, as well as the local Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus. It was produced by a grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, and is free of charge.

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SHAF has been preserving and protecting historic sites related to the Battle of Antietam, the Maryland Campaign, and other Civil War activity in the region since 1986.

We need your help to keep it going.

Antietam Witness

The number of dead horses was high. They lay, like the men, in all attitudes. One beautiful milk-white animal had died in so graceful a position that I wished for its photograph. Its legs were doubled under and its arched neck gracefully turned to one side, as if looking back to the ball-hole in its side. Until you got to it, it was hard to believe the horse was dead.